GM Korea to reinstate Gunsan factory workers starting September

GM Korea will reinstate about 300 workers at the Gunsan factory who have been forced to go on unpaid leave after the assembly line was shuttered in May last year.

According to sources from the auto industry on Thursday, GM Korea plans to accommodate Gunsan factory workers at its Bupyeong factory in western Seoul, one of its three manufacturing lines in South Korea, through spilt shifts.

The company will assign sport utility vehicle Trax currently being rolled out from the first plant to the second plant in Bupyeong by January next year, and change the workforce arrangement to split shifts. Prior to the model’s official production commencement at the second plant, the carmaker is expected to place the first batch of former Gunsan factory workers in September and second in November, according to sources.

The local unit of the U.S. auto giant announced in February last year that it would shutter its plant in Gunsan, North Jeolla Province, amid liquidity problems caused by sluggish sales. Due to the closedown, about 1,000 employees left the company through a voluntary retirement program. Among the nearly 600 workers who chose to remain in the firm, more than 200 were transferred to other factories in Bupyeong, Changwon and Boryeong, but the rest still remains displaced without payment.

The sale for Gunsan factory will likely pick up with less burden of taking up workers.